TROY, MI — Meritor Wabco had announced the OnGuard Collision Mitigation System is now available for use in medium-duty trucks in North America.

According to a news release, more than 90,000 systems have been installed in heavy-trucks since 2007, logging more than 32 billion miles on the road.

OnGuard is a radar-based active safety system that offers collision warnings and collision mitigation with active braking, as well as adaptive cruise control. It detects objects ahead and measures the vehicle’s position in relation to others on the road to warn the driver of possible a rear-end collision by providing audible, visual and other warnings.

“Meritor Wabco is very pleased that medium-duty trucks will now be able to realize the same benefit that fleets with heavy-duty trucks have gained by using OnGuard to reduce frequency of rear-end truck collisions, damage and costs as well as reduce injuries and save lives,” said Stephen Hampson, president and general manager, Meritor Wabco.

He said that heavy-duty truck fleets have reported a 65-87 percent reduction in accidents and up to an 89 percent reduction in accident costs since employing the OnGuard system.

The OnGuard system is “always on,” monitoring the road and providing warnings and active braking, even when the cruise control is not set. When a potentially dangerous driving scenario is detected, the collision mitigation system responds by sending warnings, automatically reducing engine torque and applying the foundation brakes.

A new member of the OnGuard family to be made available to medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2016 is OnGuardActive, which warns and brakes when detecting stationary objects, to mitigate or possibly avoid a potential accident.